Study finds antibiotics can reverse Salmonella damage to stem cells in mice

New research by Israeli scientists has found that damage to stem cells caused by Salmonella, a chronic bacterial infection affecting millions worldwide, can be completely reversed in mice treated with antibiotics.

Symptoms of the disease include an acute onset of fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. Gazit said that standard laboratory mice typically experience Salmonella as an acute, rapidly fatal illness, making long-term observation impossible.

The research, conducted by a team of researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, found that once antibiotics were administered, the mice not only recovered but their stem cells also returned to healthy levels.

The researchers used a breakthrough mouse model; they replicated how the chronic illness generally acts in humans.

According to the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, about 90,000 stem cell transplants are performed worldwide each year.

The researchers said the findings may improve the chances of success for some of the 90,000 stem cell transplants performed annually worldwide.

Prof. Roi Gazit, Head of a stem cell laboratory at Ben-Gurion University, supervised the research and said the experiment gives hope to people waiting for blood transplants and to donors waiting for their condition to improve.

He said, “Now that we have the model,” Gazit said, “we can gain more knowledge, and maybe we can improve bone marrow transplant as a whole.”

Gazit said the findings of the study, which was published in Cell Reports, are “very optimistic.”

“People know that humans make new blood cells every day, every second throughout life. The rate is mind-blowing. It’s more than 1 million new blood cells every second. Even when you’re sitting, your bone marrow produces an astronomical number of new blood cells, and that’s merely to keep normal life in balance,” he said.

The team focused on adult stem cells infected by salmonella, a common foodborne bacterium. According to the World Health Organization, it affects one in 10 people each year.

The Times of Israel reported that to overcome this hurdle, Gazit said the BGU lab collaborated with Arizona State University’s Prof. Roy Curtiss III, who provided a specialized, modified strain of Salmonella.

“The mice became mildly ill. After 14 days, the infection caused severe weight loss and massively enlarged spleens. In the mice’s bone marrow, the stem cells lost almost all their biological potency. They were pumping out inflammatory white blood cells at the expense of a healthy blood supply, and they were “flooded with signals linked to cellular distress.

“Then, Elfassy, because he’s a smart student, treated the mice with antibiotics. The mice recovered quickly, with their weight returning to normal and their enlarged spleens shrinking back to their proper size,” Gazit explained.

The team then partnered with the laboratory of Dr. Ofir Cohen at BGU to utilize single-cell RNA sequencing, a technology Gazit likened to a “very fancy microscope,” to determine how the infection affected the stem cells.

Prof. Michael Milyavsky, a Tel Aviv University pathologist, said, “My take-home message from this study is that it showcases the power of single-cell technologies to uncover how chronic inflammation reshapes HSCs at the molecular level.”